R. WILSON, DIRECTOR, COLLEAGUE OF WELLES

Richard Wilson, a director, producer, writer, actor and longtime associate of Orson Welles, died on Wednesday of pancreatic cancer at his home in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 75.

Mr. Wilson joined Welles and John Houseman at the founding of the Mercury Theater in the 1930s, working as a stage manager and actor for such productions as Julius Caesar, The Cradle Will Rock, Native Son and Heartbreak House, as well as for Mercury Theater of the Air on radio, and its broadcast of The War of the Worlds.

Mr. Wilson worked in several capacities on such Welles film classics as Citizen Kane (1941), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Journey Into Fear (1942), The Lady From Shanghai (1948), and Macbeth (1950 and 1980).

In 1946 he co-produced Welles' production of the Cole Porter musical based on Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days. When Welles went to work abroad, Mr. Wilson became a staff producer at Universal, working on the Ma and Pa Kettle series.

He also directed films of his own: Al Capone, starring Rod Steiger (1959), Pay or Die (1960), Invitation to a Gunfighter (1964) and Three in the Attic (1968).